Here you’ll find a collection of texts that are favorites of mine, astrological and otherwise. I recommend not limiting oneself solely to astrological texts when learning about the subject, and as such, have included many other works as well. You’ll see some books designated as having risen to the “Geraldine Standard”. This label is named after Geraldine, a lady who used to run a now closed book store in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. I used to visit her every so often, and one day she told me about a special moment after having just completed Truman Capote’s Music for Chameleons. After finishing the book, so she said, the feeling it gave her was so extraordinary that she locked herself in her car so no one would dare interrupt her. This is what great writing can do, and I believe the act of reading is in itself a form of divination that can grant profound insights while wielding the uncanny ability to address present, pressing, personal concerns.
Horary astrology is the type of astrology that seeks to answer and/or address a pressing, personal question that arises at a specific moment. Even though the title is Horary Astrology Plain and Simple, this book is a dense text with lots of information replete with much referenced classical sources. The definitions of the zodiac signs, planets, and houses are wonderful, and this book can and will improve your natal astrology skills as well.
This is one of the best books to have regarding the fixed stars and constellations. Informed by ancient Egyptian and Greek practices, Brady holds that we shouldn’t just apply modern techniques to the interpretation of the stars and supplies us with the tools to move off the ecliptic and exclusively longitudinal measurements.
This book was a lifesaver for me early on in my astrological practice. Advancing the idea that astrology is best conceived of, normatively, as a form of divination, it can help one break free of the the overriding assumed objectivity of the birth chart. The implications of this are that astrology is not predicated upon the knowing of any one specific technique or method that can produce replicable results, rather, through the mysterious work of spirit and soul one can find good fortune. Connecting back to astrology’s roots in astral omens, one can become intimately involved with charts and symbols as opposed to envisioning oneself as a scientist in a white lab coat passively observing transits. This is an immense text and requires some commitment, but if you’ve been wondering why astrology works beyond reason, this is the book you’ve been searching for.
This book is a Godsend for astrology. Even though the author is skeptical of astrology, A Scheme of Heaven challenges the scientific community to acknowledge the colossal and abiding contribution of astrology. Comparing Claudius Ptolemy’s sociological analyses to the Spartan Gay Travel Index and Guido Bonatti’s travel advice to contemporary car crash records, the author puts the astrologers to the test. Important too is the nod to the humanities and the suggestion that classics departments needn’t be divorced from the sciences.
If you’re into ritual and remedy, this book can help you address some of the pain points of your life through the wisdom of astrology. Also provided is some useful introductory information about Vedic Astrology. No previous astrological knowledge is required.
This is the first tarot deck I ever used, and I still go back to it because of its optimistic tone. It comes with a good accompanying guidebook that makes, like the title says, for easy tarot readings.
The I-Ching is the Chinese system of divination which means book of changes or book of transformations. Using sticks, or in this book, three coins, one determines a series of two hexagrams which describe a situation, how it changes, and how one might best proceed. Also included are beautiful accompanying images.
*Geraldine Standard* Technological advancements such as the V-2 rocket threaten to obliterate human beings’ capacity to love by unleashing a hedonistically scientific world. This has implications, including the changing of the zodiac upon hitting a successful target. This is partially spurned on, among many many other things, by the appropriation of the sign Pisces into the Psychological Intelligence Schemes for Expediting Surrender. Completely defying the gravity of what a novel can and should be, Pynchon’s vision of the WWII era is critically relevant today as the combined forces of technology and science march ever so steadily and stealth-fully into our lives.
Do the Gods have irrevocable control? With a little ingenuity and magic, so shows the Goddess Circe, the answer is no. A magnificent retelling of some of the Greek myths through the eyes of Circe, we are led to reimagine the images we have of Athena, Prometheus, Scylla, Hermes, and Helios, among others. This book is for anybody who dares to defy the Gods.
This, in my opinion, is the Greatest American Novel. I say this not because I think there is much transcendental value in such assessments, rather, there is no book that so thoroughly elucidates the roots of America which is based upon science, cartography, Christian capitalism, Masonry, and yes, astrology, specifically Venus’ synodic cycle (how Venus and the Sun appear to “dance” around each other along the zodiac). The book is entitled Mason and Dixon after the famous surveyors, and they imbibe “Geminity” as twins are a theme throughout the book. There is so much more to this text, and it’s truly beyond compare.
*Geraldine Standard* If there’s a lesson to be learn’t from this book, it’s that you shouldn’t get drunk at a bar with your wife lest you sell her to another man. But beyond the tragedy of Mayor of Casterbridge himself, this story is an extraordinary exploration of character, destiny, and one’s limited power to change fate. However, imagination and chance prove pivotal and magical when one fancies them, and if one engenders a spirit of whimsy, unlike the mayor, they might just triumph.
*Geraldine Standard* This inspiring text calls us to imagine and actualize a joyful, enchanted mindset lest we fall prey to the dismal privileging of an exclusively materialistic world view. The consequences of the latter are dire, including but not limited to the loss of one’s voice and family. Rushdie wrote this for his son, and it’s a great book for children as well as adults.
Man launching himself further and further into space ironically has its limits, whatever he make think of defying fate. Vonnegut suggests, though, that however much we might want to expand and explore, it’s really all about love. There are some great meditations on planetary symbolism and the nature of cycles over which we have no control.
*Geraldine Standard* Margaret Atwood is best known for the Handmaid’s Tale, but this is a very different work and is one of her first novels published in the early 70s after a decade of writing poetry and working as an academic. Most think that city life, and civilization generally, is divorced from nature. But Atwood shows they are one and the same and in fact mirror each other. An On the Road style getaway undergirded by a spiritual journey, Surfacing is about venturing out and unexpectedly finding oneself in familial and natural roots.
*Geraldine Standard* What do you do if everything you’ve built up until now seems to be an illusory sham? What if you “don’t know what to do with what (you) lived” and to whom to give it? If you’ve ever had a crisis of identity and end up being jealous of someone or something (in the case of this novel, a cockroach), this book might help you make your implosion a little less cataclysmic.
The “I” in As I Lay Dying is one of the most memorable characters in all of literature, Addie Bundren. Of the opinion that as soon as we’re born, we’d better get ready for dying, Addie makes her husband and family pay for her bitterness posthumously. Innovatively told by multiple first person narrators, As I Lay Dying is an American classic not to be missed.
For those interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the tarot, this is a great book. It draws parallels between the tarot and astrology, numerology, mathematics, religion, the humanities (which weren't originally divorced from the sciences) and other systems of divination. This is a good reference book to have.
I once heard once from a colleague that she “loved Izzie”. Another said she was “controversial”. Many famous astrologers had contact or studied with Isabel Hickey, a testament to her lasting influence. All of this makes me wish I had met her, but she died around the time I was born. This is the book I recommend for people just starting out with astrology, and I still reference it to this day. I particularly like her descriptions of the planets and their astrological symbols and also her emphasis on the need to live by heart and dedicate oneself to some form of service.
Neptune is normally referred to as the planet of deception, illusion, and mental-fog. Alternately, Neptune is considered the embodiment of spirituality, poetry, and mysticism as well as being the higher octave of Venus. Is there another way to look at the astrological Neptune beyond some of the basic keywords and significations? Maurice Fernandez maintains that there is, offering us a way out of the confusion. In this original work, he takes a no-nonsense approach that identifies Neptune as the oceanic source of life that in and of itself has the power to give abundance and happiness. Grappling with this practical book can help you empower yourself and whilst preventing a metaphorical Neptunian drowning at sea.
If you’re looking to get your head in the stars, straightaway, this is a wonderful book to have. A beautifully set book printed on elegant, glossy pages, it’s replete with illustrations and a helpful glossary of basic astronomical and astrological terms. You’ll make friends with the stars and their stories in no time.
A classic text concerning the fixed stars. This book is quite dire and fatalistic as Robson compiles the available source material regarding the interpretation of the stars up until that point (this book was published in the first part of the 20th Century and he was a librarian). These renderings should be taken with a grain of salt. However, less known about this text is Robson’s elucidation of the Chinese, Hindu, and Arabic lunar mansions which can provide wonderful insights into the Moon’s placement in a chart.
Who are the disruptors, the “tricksters”, whose often unwitting actions shape the world? How can one utilize a type of mindset that privileges chance and the unexpected that avoids myopic thinking? And how does this way of being help one avoid traps, be they overconsumption or stagnation? These themes are explored in this revelatory text that can upend your preconceived notions about how best to approach the chaos of life.
This is a great book if you’re just working with Sun Signs but are wanting classical and mythological depth with a contemporary edge. Unlike many other astrological texts, the authors really dive into the depth of each Sun Sign as opposed to focusing on everything else. This is great for all levels of astrology.
This tarot deck aims to probe one’s dreams and psyche as opposed to identifying external people and events. For those interested in the relationship between tarot, astrology, and the Kabbalah, all of the cards have the their respective astrological signs, planets, and Hebrew letters integrated with the images. The helpful accompanying guidebook covers all of this material.
The ancient Chinese practice of Feng Shui means “wind and water”. Emphasizing the concept that energy and matter are in constant motion, the utilization of Feng Shui can enhance your living space and bring prosperity. Terah Kathryn Collins’ book is straightforward and applicable.
Many writers and critics’ blood goes all meridian (apparently this is where the title originates, a poem by Lord Byron) over this text. However, I include it because it offers unique insights into some basic astronomical and astrological concepts, especially as it relates to how we’re bound to nature and the heavens. I find the title problematic due to the fact that McCarthy uses the antiquated term “meridian” which is now what we call the Mid-heaven, the highest point the Sun reaches mid-day at any given spot. But the title is Blood Meridian, or the Evening Setting in the West, so it’s contradictory because the meridian never sets. Meridian lines of longitude run north and south, but the Sun sets in the west.
*Geraldine Standard* I synchronistically read this book when I began to truly accept the astrological birth chart as more of an omen or sign to be interpreted rather than an independent object. In fact, Reed satirically challenges natal astrology and mundane astrology in favor of forms of divination such as “knockings” and geomancy. Ishmael Reed argues for the spirit of “Jes Grew” that has its roots in Africa and sprouts up through Ragtime, Jazz, and more. He makes the case that the joy of divination, and life in general, is suppressed by Western culture and that while modernization is at times necessary, there is a danger in exchanging perceived constancy at the cost of ecstasy. This has implications for the spirit in which astrology is undertaken. It is an extraordinary, imaginative telling of Western history. Thomas Pynchon himself acknowledges the brilliance of this text in Gravity’s Rainbow, another book on this list, instructing us to “check out Ishmael Reed”.
How can one find harmony in life? Hesse tries to answer this perennial question through Joseph Knecht, his protagonist who eschews the strains of a mundane existence—career, reputation, social networks—in favor of a monastic order where he creates a game in which everybody can be both an individual and part of a whole, like a symphony.
*Geraldine Standard* The spiritual journey of the protagonist is a simultaneous move into the future and the past. Returning to one’s origins reveals an eternal truth that everything has already happened underneath the sun. Twin moons that rotate around each other are paradoxically different and the same, and leaving one for the other is more circular than linear, literally and figuratively. Recommended for anyone who is on a solitary journey of self and scientific (one and the same) discovery.
What can you say? It’s Paradise Lost. However, what gets lost in the conversation around this ambitious poem that the Muse, according to Milton, gave us, is the astrology contained within it. Saturn gets exiled to Britain via Italy, probably an allusion to the Roman Empire’s conquest, and we find Jupiter in hell. If you haven’t read this, it’s probably time.
*Modified, Ebullient Geraldine Standard* Trying to force all things divine doesn’t work, and often times pilgrimages, be they spiritual or not, leave one back at square one. Just ask the second law of thermodynamics divination machine. Asking does not guarantee an answer.
What is the cost of sexual and economic freedom? A golf course? The end of yearly rituals by the “town crazy” that help a community achieve catharsis? Morrison cautions us not to over romanticize a troubled past marred by poverty and racism while concurrently celebrating people who in years past were more dignified, creative, and spiritual.
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